Fascination Technology Batteries Made from Rust As An Environmentally Friendly Alternative

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In our "Fascination Technology" section, we present impressive research and development projects to design engineers every week. Today: How carbon spheres filled with iron oxide offer good storage capacity and an environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Conventional lithium-ion batteries contain problematic substances such as nickel and cobalt. In addition, the solvents used to coat electrode materials are toxic. Materials scientists at Saarland University have incorporated finely dispersed iron oxide into highly porous hollow carbon spheres and thus developed an environmentally friendly alternative. The storage capacities achieved sound promising, and iron and carbon are also widely available. The research results were published in the journal "Chemistry of Materials".

"As is well known, Mozartkugeln come from Salzburg (Austria). The hollow carbon spheres that our colleagues at the University of Salzburg have developed are analogous to these filled chocolate balls. These so-called carbon spherogels offer us nanometer-sized units (approx. 250 nm) with large surfaces and a high electrochemical capacity. The challenge now is to pack suitable metal oxides into the existing cavity by means of chemical synthesis," explains materials researcher Stefanie Arnold. After initial experiments with titanium dioxide, whose ability to store and release lithium ions was relatively low, iron oxide, commonly known as rust, came into play.

Developing New Recycling Methods

As part of the "EnFoSaar project", Stefanie Arnold is also working on the question of how lithium from batteries can be recycled and how batteries must be designed in future so that they can be dismantled on an industrial scale. EnFoSaar is a major project financed by the Saarland state government with $27 million USD from the transformation fund. Its aim is to develop innovative approaches for a climate-friendly energy supply. It aims to drive forward the transformation of Saarland's energy industry and the necessary research landscape through a scientifically sound and practical application-oriented methodology.

Further Research into Batteries Made from Rust

There is still some research work to be done before this mechanism can be used on an industrial scale. On the one hand, the activation process still needs to be accelerated so that the batteries reach their maximum storage capacity sooner. In addition, the hollow carbon spheres filled with iron oxide are only the electrode of the batteries. In order to obtain a full cell, a suitable counter electrode still needs to be developed. "We are confident that we will be able to use it to operate intermediate storage systems for renewable energy in an environmentally friendly way," says Volker Presser, who also heads the Energy Materials research department at the Saarbrücken-based INM—Leibniz Institute for New Materials. The new material will also be tested for sodium-ion batteries, such as those already used by Chinese car manufacturers. "These materials form a versatile technology platform with which a wide variety of other materials can be integrated into the spherogels in situ, i.e. in a single synthesis step, and used for a wide range of applications," says Michael Elsässer.

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